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New York Giants Bury Themselves with Penalties, Fall to Washington Redskins 17-16

December 4th, 2012 at 7:00 AM By Dan Benton

Both the New York Giants and Washington Redskins went into their Monday night battle knowing it would dramatically alter their direction for the remainder of the season. For the Giants, a win would put them in prime position to win the NFC East, while a win for the Redskins would pull them within one game of the division lead. Throughout the week the mantra on each side was the same: the team who wants it more will walk away victorious.

When the smoke finally cleared, it was Robert Griffin III and the Washington Redskins standing tall … barely. But a win is a win in the NFL, and the Giants now face a brutal four-game schedule with no chance at finishing better than 3-3 in their division.

Eli Manning – Eli did just miss two huge pass plays, but had one of his better games in quite some time. He was making impossible throws into tight spaces with incredible precision.

Keith Rivers – It's tantalizing to watch Rivers when he's healthy. He came up big on a number of plays, was extremely physical all night and showed that he can be impactful for the Giants … if he stays healthy.

Chase Blackburn – He'll never be confused for a supreme athlete, but Blackburn has a knack for coming up big in big moments. He did that again on Monday night when he forced a fumble, stopping an impressive Redskins drive before they reached the endzone.

Ahmad Bradshaw – Bradshaw seemed determined to give this game his all from the moment he left the tunnel. He ran physically and resembled the player he was pre-foot injuries.

Negatives:

Route Running – Although the wide receivers had a very solid statistical game, some of their routes left a lot to be desired. More than just 3rd down routes run short of the first-down marker, there was some miscommunication at times that led to missed opportunities, or in the case of Rueben Randle, an intentional grounding penalty.

Drops – There were too many. Period.

Penalties – Could the Giants have shot themselves in the foot any more than they did? It was relentless from start to finish.

Jim Cordle – Speaking of penalties, Cordle had two holding penalties on kickoffs that resulted in drives starting inside the 10.

ESPN Broadcast – Ignoring the fact that Jon Gruden forgets names like no ones business, could there have been more commercials?

Injuries – Sean Locklear was carted off with what appeared to be a serious leg injury late in the fourth quarter.

Mixed:

Prince Amukamara – The Prince is getting better each and every week, and that was never more evident than his open-field tackle on Santana Moss for -1 yard. However, there are times where he leaves the receiver with entirely too much cushion. There were several instances tonight where the Skins were able to get an easy 5-7 yards by throwing at his cushion.

Defensive line – Defending against the Pistol offense is a difficult thing to do … especially when you're typically aggressive. It was pretty bad at times and not so bad at others. All in all, it was about what you would expect playing a college offensive system with professional players.

First off … anyone who has been a fan of this team for any length of time should have seen this choke job coming … for a mile. This is exactly the kind of regular season egg that we lay on a consistent basis. We’re a somewhat better than average team that has the amazing ability to get roaring hot in the playoffs. This is not some sort of aberration. This is who we are … this is how we roll. It’s a great formula, and brings home championships … but first we have to make the playoffs, and I’m not certain that’s going to happen this year.

But why?

If we look at last year the one thing that separated us from the pack was that we had the best trio of WRs in the NFL. Nicks, Cruz, and Manningham presented opposing defensive coordinators with a nightmare. All 3 had legit #1 ability … all 3 were tough after the catch … all 3 could take it deep. There was just no way to blunt this attack.

Fast-forward to last night. Manningham is gone, only to be replaced by ’3-JAGS-and-a-rook’. None of whom put the presents under the tree that Mario did. On the other side is the ‘Ghost of Hakeem Nicks past’. Like in the Dickens novel he comes bearing terrible news. That news is that he’s hurt, and won’t be near 100% this season. Booooooooooooooo … scary.

DCs across the NFL waken from the nightmare in a cold sweat. But now finding themselves safe in their comfy beds they have a collective ‘ah ha’ moment … ‘we’ll rotate the coverage to Cruz, take our chances with the hobbled Nicks, and laugh as whatever clown they have in the #3 slot tries to remember the play.’ They pull the covers up and fall fast asleep, with visions of incompletions dancing in their heads.

Some of those balls yesterday had to be squeezed into spaces so tight I found myself amazed. Even Gruden looked up from RG3?s dik once or twice to mumble. But it also pointed out how far our passing attack has sunk. There’s little if any separation. Cruz is relegated to underneath stuff. Nicks limps off painfully after every tackle. And as for the rest … JAG-O-Rama.

Just 4 games to go, and baring a miracle we’re going to need 3. Possible? Sure. But probable … not so sure. New Orleans is still tough, and has the ability to light up any defense. Atlanta … best record in the NFL, and they want a piece of us from the way we dispatched them last year. The Ravens … I bet you Ray Lewis comes back … just in time to fire them up for us. And the Eagles … well, aren’t we always their b-tch? Ugh …

When the final chapter is written about 2012 we’re going to look back at 2 decisions and wonder.

We’ll never know what went down with Manningham. Maybe he did want to go somewhere fresh and be a starter. Maybe the contract money was way out of line. Who knows? But in the final analysis we didn’t adequately fill the #3 WR slot. We ‘dumbed down’ the very unit that leverages our franchise QB.

The other was Hakeem Nicks. Remember when BigBlue reported that he heard he tore his meniscus? If that’s true … if he does need a scope job after the season … then the decision to manage this injury instead of eating the 4 weeks needed to get him back to 100% … will go down as one of the worst moves of the Coughlin era.

Other random thoughts …

Wilson … he runs like a much smaller man. I’m getting the feeling he’s a ‘change of pace’ back, and not a feature/every-down RB. There’s nothing wrong with that, but you don’t use a #1 pick on that type of role-player. Let’s hope I’m wrong.

Bennett … he’s a ‘must sign’. Pay the man.

OL … what a stark contrast between our weaklings and the Skins OL. We’re OK pass blockers, but we can’t blow anyone off the line. No holes … no push … no run game. I have renewed respect for Bradshaw, who has to survive behind that mess. It’s incredible that he gets any yardage at all.

Coaching … we have one of the best staffs in the NFL, but they were severely out-coached yesterday. The Redskins are not much of a team. The Cowboys lit them up. But they handle us. They dictated the game. We looked confused and slow to adjust.

Attitude … I know we can’t be sky high for every game. But if they couldn’t sack it up for last night’s contest then it tells you something. LT … Carson … Bavaro … Jim Burt … they’d have been insane … like caged beasts. Yet there was little fire … clearly the intensity edge was with the Skins. Maybe two Superbowl trophies dulls the blade. I don’t know, but it’s very disconcerting … and has been going on all year. They seem to lack passion.

So all-in-all not a very pretty picture. As usual we’re up against it. Luckily this is where we usually play our best. But I think maybe we cut the margin a little too close this time. Lose to the Saints and I feel the season ends right there. Beat them and we keep our ever diminishing playoff hopes alive, but only just.

Cordle was a goat last night, for sure. His SECOND penalty negated a really nice return.

I’m waiting to see if anyone else was as furious with Michael Boley’s play as I was last night. I’ll have to watch the game again to be sure but it seemed like Boley and Tuck were virtually invisible. How does Tuck expect anyone on that roster to take him seriously when he speaks if he’s going to be a total non-factor in a big game like this?

How many times do we have to play a team whose defense, before every run play, looks as though they are totally expecting it and stuffs it before we bring down the conventional wisdom that Kevin Gilbride is a genius OC? He wastes more downs and puts that offense into more tough spots than any OC of a competitive team I’ve seen. The second half play calling was either a joke or a nightmare, I can’t decide which. Why did we keep banging our head against the wall running the ball against a team that couldn’t cover our tight ends all night?

Opposing OLs should pay ours for film … then they could use it to get more cash from their own teams. “See … at least we’re not like that. That guy there … Snee … $7,000,000 a year … Baas … $5,000,000 …. I want more money dammit !!!”

Now that we lost our chance to ease our way through the last quarter of the season, time to look at what’s left and realistic ways of making the playoffs. Short of finishing 11-5, the question is whether 9-7 or even 10-6 gets us in.

As can be seen, the cowboys have the far harder finish and one can easily see them losing anywhere from 1 to all four. On balance, assuming Big Ben is healthy, I think they lose to Pitt and probably one other. I look for them to finish no worse than 8-8; no better than 9-7. If their losses fall right (that is 2 of the next 3), we will be looking for them to man up the last week of the season against RG.

Washington must lose Sunday to Baltimore or else they are likely to run the table forcing us to do the same.

Based solely on remaining schedule and momentum, Washington has to be the favorite to win the East right now; so the question becomes, is there a path to the wild card?

The Bears will win at least 1 more game (Ariz.) meaning they’ll finish no worse than 9-7. They will probably win at least 1 of Minnesota/Detroit, meaning 10-6 is squarely in their sites. They are presently 5-3 in Conference and a 2-2 split of the last 4 makes them 7-5. We are currently 6-3 in conference. If we go 3-1 with Baltimore as our sole loss, we win the tie breaker over chicago.

They are surprisingly the most likely to compete for the second spot. A 3-1 finish looks very possible, which would leave them at 10-6. at 5-4 in conference right now, and assuming a single loss to the 9-ers, they would end up 7-5 in conference. the Giants win this tier breaker if they are both 10-6.

And then there’s JPP. Everyone’s favorite 0 football IQ superstar. Never seen a play fake he wouldn’t bite hard on. Never seen a contain responsibility that he’d selfishly pass on.

Truth is, if you watch carefully, teams are running play fakes right at him all season. Until he stops being so selfish and starts relying on his freakish athletic skills to make plays *after* the QBs hands separate from the RB, you’re going to continue to see it.

we all knew, or should have known, that repeating in 2012 would be a high order we are not dead yet but for all but a few games this year we have sputtered on both sides of the ball our inability to finish off drives is the real killer our more often than not inability to match adjustments in the second have is also a problem by all rights we should have put up 20 points in the first half, 7 in the second and won that game relatively easy but we just don’t finish off drives

so now it is gut check time we must beat the Saints this week plain and simple a loss to them and we likely skid right off the cliff

Thank god I wasn’t the only one who thought the commecial total was extreme last night.

Only other negative I would add is that our defense as a whole seemed to be at a loss all night long. The Skins had us guessing the entire time as to where the ball was going and again we were exposed by a team that has speed at the skill positions. We continue to lose containment at the edges.

This team can be good, but the lack of consistency and discipline that they show will likely be our downfall as the season starts to come to an end. Hope I am wrong.

I’m not sure if anyone watched the Redskins/Cowboys game on Thanksgiving, but here’s essentially what happened:

Redskins jumped out to an early monster lead - bad on the Cowboys defense

Cowboys came storming back on Romo’s arm - good on the Cowboys offense

Fast forward to last night:

Redskins did not jump out to an early lead, and only scored 17 points total - good on the Giants defense

Giants never stormed their defense on Eli’s arm - bad on the Giants offense

I don’t know how you can do anything but point at the offense.

There’s a disturbing trend here: wayyyyyyy too many games this year where the offense simply cannot sustain 2nd half drives. Weatherford doen’t punt in the 1st half. Then it’s a 3 and out fest in the 2nd half.

And it’s inevitable that after a long game featuring large humans beating the hell out of each other that your 3 dressed DTs are going to tire in the 2nd half. It’s imperitave your offense possesses the ball and scores points and makes the other team one dimensional.

So who are you pointing the finger at? Eli was able to move the ball for most of the game with his arm but Gilbride continued to try and pound Bradshaw up the middle as opposed to pushing it outside.

To me this continues to be a Gilbride issue as we routinely tighten up every week in the 2nd half and refuse to open up the offense. For all the good that Gilbride can show at times, when we are ahead but the game is close more often than not he refuses to go for the throat and begs the other team to take advantage of it.